News

13 Jan 2012

Solar Panels fitted at Portland

A £500,000 investment into an innovative new roof for Albion Stone’s Factory is set to save thousands of pounds a year on their electricity bills.

The 800 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are the largest solar project in which The Crown Estate has invested. The solar panels are expected to generate more than 150,000 kilowatts of electricity per year - the equivalent to the annual consumption of 50 houses - and will reduce Albion Stone’s carbon footprint by 80 tonnes per year.

In addition to the electricity savings, the solar panels will also generate a return for the Crown Estate, which pays its entire revenue surplus to HM Treasury. Electricity generated from the installation will be sold to us at a reduced rate, with any surplus fed in to the National Grid.

The installation is particularly innovative - instead of the panels being built on to the existing roof, the installation provider replaced the entire roof with an Energy Roof. The Energy Roof, installed by Solarcentury, will generate electricity for 25 years and requires little maintenance.

Alan Laidlaw, head of new business development for The Crown Estate's rural estate, said: "Our investment at Portland represents a significant first step into solar energy for us. We welcome a joint investment approach to renewable energy, which works both for us and our tenants, by protecting their businesses from volatile energy markets, and at the same time cutting carbon emissions from our estate."

Michael Poultney, Albion Stone’s Managing Director, said "Albion Stone has been pleased to support The Crown Estate's solar panel project at our stone production factory, which further reinforces the continuing reduction in the carbon footprint for our Portland Stone."

Members' News

Stone Federation are a member of EuroRoc, an organisation made up of the various European Federations for the dimensional stone industry. The aim of the group is to coordinate questions of common interest and find solutions while promoting the use of dimensional natural stone.

The Federation's EuroRoc representative, Michael Poultney of Albion Stone along with Peter Harrison of Harrison Goldman, attended the latest meeting held at the Verona Stone Show in October.

There were a range of topics discussed, but shown are four discussions points that will be of particular interest to members.

1. Ethical Sourcing - There are various different degrees of controls of ethical sourcing across Europe and some is at a very local level. It was accepted that the EU should be encouraging stones from ethical sources but there was some scepticism that a system with a high degree of certainty could be found in the short term. It was agreed that the starting point should be to pool all the experiences from the differing methods currently being used by different, Countries, companies and organisations.

2. Geographical Protection - There was considerable support from across the EU and the robust comments from the UK were considered positive. It is back with the European Parliament on what could be a long journey to possible implementation.

3. Reporting Figures - There was concerns that the code numbers used for reporting production, imports and exports are not recording the dimensional stone figure accurately. It was suggested that these should be related to the harmonised Product Standards (BS EN). Michael Poultney has been in dialogue with BGS and Eric Bignell at the Natural Stone Specialist magazine about the topic earlier in the month. Euroroc will progress the matter with the relevant authorities.

4. Silica Dust - There was a mixed response about the danger of the implementation of the dust regulations and the prospects of reducing the code. It was agreed that the experiences from the implementation from national authorities will be requested.

With the island of Portland, from which the famous Portland limestone comes, being just off the Dorset coast from Weymouth, there could not have been a more appropriate material to use for a sculpture of the Olympic rings that has now been installed in the town that is hosting the Olympic sailing events.

This new monument, costing £5 million, will commemorate the 55, 573 crew members of the RAF's Bobmer Command who were killed between 1939 and 1945. The average age of those who lost their lives was just 22.

Albion Stone has recently purchased a new ‘JCB Fantini’, tractor mounted stone saw which will be used to increase efficiency in the Quarry & Mine. This is the first machine of its type to be imported into any UK stone extraction operation.

TV presenter, journalist and former conservative politician and Cabinet Minister, Michael Portillo made a fascinating tour of local natural stone producer, Burlington Stone of Kirkby-in-Furness, shown on 26th January on BBC2 at 6.30pm, as part of series three of the BBC’s popular travel documentary, Great British Railway Journeys.

Taking centre stage on The Marshalls Garden That Kids Really Want! at the 2008 RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May the company utilised its own indigenous natural Yorkstone block to create two striking central features in this amazing organic playground.